Light travels in straight lines requiring point-to-point architectures. For communications systems, straight optical lines, so called enabled lines of sight geometries, may be rare. In the commercial sector, this challenge has been largely solved by the creation of the physical layer for the internet. In commercial internet based systems, light is transmitted via fiber optics, occasionally referred to as optical waveguides, which may allow the light to follow a well-defined, confined geometry. The fiber may follow any geometric path, with the communications light following an arbitrary path. However, this solution will not work for airborne or free-space environments as optical fibers may not be strung between planes or other mobile communicators. Heritage communications systems, for example, those that operate in the microwave or RF regimes, operate in spectral regions which have higher transparency. The longer wavelengths in those spectral areas cause the beam to diffract and spread much faster as they propagate. However, the longer wavelengths have carrier frequencies orders of magnitude lower than the optical regime. As a result, they may have intrinsically slower data rates. At times, communications may require higher bandwidths implying operation at the higher carrier rates associated with optical frequencies. RF and microwave carrier frequencies may have limited bandwidth capabilities due to lower carrier frequencies. The prior art may not provide for a free-space communication system operating at optical frequencies, which may allow communication between multiple users in an ad hoc, stochastic, temporal environment.
A free-space optical communications network and/or method of users communicating using a free-space optical communications network is needed to address one or more problems associated with one or more of the existing communications networks and/or methods of communication.